Spreading my Wings
This story is rated ''[[Warriors Fanfiction:Story Ratings|''worse]].'' 'BLURB: ' Human civilization has just finished a dark time. It is about 100 years since the end of WW3, and most humans have been wiped out. A few still remain, though, but the wilderness has taken back over Earth, with animals, especially mammals, overtaking humans in means of advancedness. But humans are working their way back up to the top, determined once again to conquer the animals. They have begun capturing the smartest animals, especially cats, and testing on them. And when the humans discover a small group of cats living on the outskirts of the small town of Pimprick Grove that have proven more advanced than the rest, they seize the opportunity- literally. Russetwing is just another normal cat in her normal Clan, BrambleClan. Nothing interesting ever happens to BrambleClan, but that changes when twolegs capture most of them, including Russetwing. Russetwing is shipped off to a laboratory in the heart of a Twolegplace, and lives in a lab when they experiment on her and turn her life upside down. But when Russetwing meets a wolf named Deila, a fellow science project, things start to change. BrambleClan Allegiances Leader: Thornstar- huge brown brindle tom with green eyes Deputy: Stormflash- gray she-cat with yellow eyes and a long tail Medicine Cat: Vineshadow- tortoishell she-cat with green eyes '''Apprentice- Sleetpaw '''''Warriors: Russetflight- Russet tabby she-cat with blue eyes Rainspeckle- Gray dappled tom with blue eyes Apprentice- Maplepaw Shadowtail- White she-cat with a black tail and amber eyes Lilystep- Golden spotted she-cat with amber eyes- twin sister to Sunstep Oakblaze- dark brown tabby tom with dark green eyes Apprentice- Harepaw Falconswoop- lithe white tom with brown markings and blue eyes Breezewhisper- small tortoishell she-cat with a black undercoat and amber eyes Dewclaw- pale gray tom with hazel eyes and white paws Apprentice- Birdpaw Sunstep- Golden tabby she-cat, twin sister to Lilystep Twigfoot- scrawny brown tabby tom with green eyes Apprentices: Maplepaw- orange-and-black tabby tom with green eyes Sleetpaw- gray tom with black markings and amber eyes Birdpaw- blueish-gray she-cat with green eyes Harepaw- brownish-gray tom with bright blue eyes Queens: Rosefall- reddish she-cat with blue eyes (Expectant) Cloudheart- dark gray she-cat with white splotches and dark blue eyes (Kits: Mosskit and Fawnkit) Kits: Mosskit- gray tabby tom with green eyes and long fur Fawnkit- reddish-brown she-kit with little white dapples on her pelt and green eyes Elders: Iceriver- white she-cat with blue eyes Crookedtail- orange tabby tom with green eyes and a bent tail Larkcall- brown tabby she-cat with blue eyes and a torn ear Lab Animals Russetwing- See BrambleClan description. Red wings. Deila- Wolf. Slate gray with black stripes and green eyes. Gray wings. Girl Piero- Jackal. Golden with black spots, one red paw, green eyes. Orange wings. Boy Gru- Komodo dragon. Gray, leathery skin and amber eyes. Black leathery dragon wings. Boy Prologue The man peered over his wire-rimmed glasses at the computer screen in front of him. Staring at the device intently, he waved over another man in a white lab coat. "Ford, come look at this," he said, not taking his eyes away from the screen. The other man, who's name was apparently Ford, walked briskly over to his comrade, loafers click-clacking on the metal, slate gray floor. "What is it, Green?" he asked briskly, peeking in on Green's computer. Green looked back at Ford, and pointed to several squiggly lines. "Look at this DNA," Green said, gesturing to the squiggles. "I found this sample just outside of town, in the Tobiath Forest." Ford studied the DNA strands closely. "Interesting," he mumbled. "What animal did this come from?" "Wait, let me check," Green mumbled, clicking on several icxons and typing frantically away, the green code scrawling across his computer screen. "Can't you type any faster?" Ford said jokingly, a smile tinging his lips. Green rolled his eyes, going along with the joke. "100 WPM, bub," he mumbled, still typing the code. He stopped, and triumphantly pressed the ENTER ''key. Another strand of green code filled the computer screen , and Green studied it silently. "It's cat DNA," he finally replied. Ford studied the code once more. "Diagram it. I want every molecule of this coded and in the computer. Print it out and make it all pretty with Microsoft Publisher," Ford said matter-of-factly. Green nodded and turned back to the computer, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Whatever they were going to do with this DNA, Green could already tell it was important. Chapter 1 Russetflight's day had been normal until she got socked in the head with a pinecone. Personally, that was the most interesting thing that had happened to the russet tabby she-cat since she earned her warrior name. Nothing exciting ''ever ''happened in BrambleClan. But, even though it did make her day more interesting and now she had something to complain about, it didn't mean that idiot Maplepaw had to throw a StarClan-forbidden ''pinecone ''at her head. "Oops, um, sorry Russetflight," Maplepaw giggled. Russetflight just rolled her eyes at the apprentice and shook bits of pinecone off her head. "Shut it, Maplepaw," she muttered, and Maplepaw silenced himself, bits of giggle still forcing their way out of his big mouth every once in a while. Russetflight picked the last bit of pinecone from her fur, flicked her ears, and padded onward into the forest. BrambleClan's territory was huge- there was no need to mark borders as was there were no other cats around. In fact, BrambleClan didn't really have a set territory. They just hunted anywhere they wanted to. They were the only cats in the forest, and even the nearest Twolegplace was miles away. Russetflight looked back to check if Maplepaw was still following her. Sure enough, there he was. ''Darn it. I can't believe Rainspeckle stuck me with his dumb apprentice. ''She kicked an orange leaf from the forest floor, watching it float up, disappearing into the autumn-colored foliage of the tree above it. It was leaf-fall, and the trees were half-bare, half-leafy, like they couldn't decide whether to be trees or a big pile of barren sticks. Russetflight heard Maplepaw behind her, scuffling around in the leaves. She turned around to see him with a mouse in his jaws. "Look what I caught!" he said, though the mouse in his jaws making it sound more like 'Ook wat I cot'. Russetflight was surprised- it was a clean kill. Maplepaw had done something right for once. "Congratulations, you did it correctly for once," she meowed, nodding her approval. Maplepaw practically glowed with excitement, and quickly buried his catch at the foot of a maple tree- how fitting. They started to pad off farther into the woods once agin, looking for more prey. Chapter 2 Maplepaw dropped his mouse on the fresh-kill pile. Russetflight dropped her catch- a squirrel- on top of his. Maplepaw bounced off to the apprentices' den, chatting with his friends. Russetflight laid down with a sparrow. "Hi, Russetflight." Rainspeckle laid down beside her with a vole between his paws. "How are you?" Russetflight ripped a chunk out of the sparrow- for some reason, she was starving. "Fine," she said between mouthfuls. Rainspeckle smiled in his gentle way, and nibbled on his vole. "So, um, Russetflight," he meowed, looking down for a second. "Would you like to... go on a... walk with me?" He blinked embarrasedly. Russetflight's tail twitched. "Oh, uh, sure," she replied, a bit confused. Since when had Rainspeckle started acting lovey-dovey towards her? Rainspeckle nodded awkwardly, and looked over towards Rosefall. "Rosefall, do you want this?" he meowed, motioning to the vole. Rosefall smiled and took the vole, ravenously tearing into the prey. Despite Rosefall's gentle appearance and sweet nature, the queen could eat like a vulture. Rainspeckle padded out of the camp, motioning Russetwing to follow him. "Coming?" he meowed with a smile. Russetwing smiled politely and followed him, and they padded through the woods in silence. A bird called somewhere in the distance. Rainspeckle smiled, and looked at the russet tabby she-cat. Russetwing, unaware of the tom's gaze, looked at the trees surrounding them. Russetwing stopped and sat down, and Rainspeckle quickly sat down beside her. Russetwing watched the trees rustle quietly, leaves falling off every so often. "I wish something interesting would happen," she meowed. Rainspeckle slowly, cautiously, wrapped his tail around her. He felt her stiffen with surprise, but ignored it. "Maybe we should just slow down for right now," he meowed. "Take it easy. Let our guards down." Boldly, he licked her cheek, ignoring her surprise. Russetwing, surprisingly, smiled at his lick. A warm feeling spreaded through her, and she let her guard down. The bushes rustled, but Russetwing didn't care. This was her time- no, her and Rainspeckle's time- and nothing could change that. So she let her guard down. And that mistake cost her everything she had ever known in life. ~*~ "Ready?" the man whispered, clenching the tranquilizer gun. The man beside him, also holding a tranquilizer gun, nodded, and the two loaded a single dart into the gun. "I'll go for the red one, you go for the gray one," the first man said. The other man nodded, again, and set his sight on the gray cat. the first man did the same with the red cat. "One three. One..." "Two..." The two men were alert, sights trained on the designated cat. "Three." The tranquilizer darts hit their marks, straight in the chests of the two cats. For a second, they looked confused, and then they slumped to the ground, fighting for consciuosness. They eventually lost. The two men silently stepped out between the trees and checked the cats' pulses. They were both out cold. The first man pulled out the tranquilizing dart and put the red cat into a sturdy-looking sack. The other man pulled the dart out of the gray cat, loaded it back into his gun, and left the cat slumped against a tree. The two men looked up to see a massive black object hovering above their heads, and the first one stuck his fingers into his mouth and whistled. A rope ladder shot down between the gaps in trees, and the two men watched it quaver slightly. "You first," the second man said, and the first man, firmly grasping the sack, started up with her partner behind him. They disappeared into the hovercraft, and it shot away. Birds resumed their singing, and squirrels chattered again. It could have been a normal day, despite the fact that a gray tom was lying unconcious, slumped against the trunk of an oak tree, a reminder of just how brutal humans can be. Chapter 3 The first things Russetflight saw when she woke up was a giant, furry ''thing. She squeaked in surprise at it, panic and fear filling her brain. Where am I? Why am I here? What happened to BrambleClan? Where is the forest? What happed to Rainspeckle-'' "Take it easy, kid." Russetflight jumped as her thoughts were interrupted by the furry thing. She noticed that it had fluffy, dark gray fur with black stripes. Its green eyes twinkled with amusement, and its long, slender muzzle held a smirking mouth with black lips. "W-who are you? ''What ''are you?" Russetflight stuttered, looking up at the thing's massive size. It was even bigger than Thornstar, who stood at least two heads higher than her. It chuckled. "Gotta love newbies, right Piero?" it said over its shoulder. Its gray tail swept aross the cold, hard, gray floor. "I'm a wolf. My name is Deila. And you are...?" "Umm, R-Russetflight." The wolf chuckled again, and Russetflight raised an eyebrow. "That's ironic. Real ironic," Deila mumbled. ''She's so big- wait, is it a she? "Umm... are you a..." Russetflight stuttered awkwardly. Deila seemed to understand her, and laughed. "I'm a girl. Piero's a boy, and Gru is too," she replied with a smile. Russetflight felt confused. Who are Piero and Gru? Again, it was if Deila read her mind. She pointed to the cage behind her. "That's Piero," she said, motioning to an animal that looked faintly like her, but with bigger ears and a yellow coat dotted with brownish-black spots. "He's a jackal." Then Deila pointed to a thing that looked like a huge lizard, but with gray leathery skin. "And that's Gru. He's a komodo dragon." Russetflight looked at the other animals nervously. Even beside her, Deila, Piero and Gru, there were tons ''of them. Animals of all shapes and sizes- dogs, cats, birds, frogs, you name it, it was there. A chill went down her spine as she noticed other things about them. They... weren't quite...''one ''animal. One was half-mouse, half-something else, with long fur and even longer buck teeth, and huge, long ears. Russetflight looked down, chills running up and down her spine. Now she looked back up at Deila and the other animals. In their eyes, they're wasn't something quite right. They all had this slightly wild gleam. Russetflight looked down again, this time visibly quivering. They were all insane, she knew it. In metal cages with cold floors and steel bars, no wonder. Russetflight kept looking down. How long until ''she ''went insane. Her claws slid out and in, out and in- she had to get out. Before she was killed- or something worse. Before she became one of ''them. '' Chapter 4 Russetflight couldn't sleep. It wasn't physically possible- she was in this strange place that reeked of antiseptic and was surrounded by insane half-animals. Could ''you ''sleep under those circumstances? For a long, long time she just lay there. Eventually twolegs in sterile-looking white coats turned off the lights, and then walked away. The sounds of animals getting ready for sleep echoed down the long hall filled with row upon row of cages. Russetflight could hear Deila curling up, not unlike a cat, and getting ready for sleep. She heard the rustle of feathers coming from Deila's cage. Surprised, she tried to peek over into Deila's cage, but all she could make out was the wolf's dark outline. ''I probably just imagined it. Eventually, the she-cat collapsed into unconsciousness for about an hour. Then she was right back awake, and the harsh, artificial lights made her squint. She looked over to see Deila scratching behind her ear with her hind foot. Her head was tilted sideways, her eyes closed with pleasure. "Ahh... that's the stuff," Russetflight heard her mumble. Warily, the she-cat checked for the fourth time to see if any of her clanmates were here. And, for the fourth time, none of them were. She sulkily licked a paw and drew it over her ear. The sounds of animals moving around filled her head, and she lay back down, blinking with sleepiness. Last night's sleeplessness had finally caught up with her. Laying down, she closed her eyes, and drifted into sleep. She awoke quickly, sitting bolt upright. She looked around to find that Deila, Piero, and Gru were all gone. Fighting panic, Russetflight silently searched for them. The panic rose in her throat as she didn't see them. Trying to force it down, this time she felt bile rising. She was trying to fight that ''down when she heard a crash. Looking beside her she saw a ball of gray fur in a heap beside her. Russetflight jumped in surprise as the lump shifted around and sat up. It was... Deila? "Oh, hey. Why so jumpy?" Deila said casually. Russetflight finally realized something- Deila wasn't speaking cat, so how could she understand her? "It's okay, I'm not speaking in cat," the wolf said again, nibbling a large paw. Russetflight blinked in surprise. "Can-can you read my mind?" she stuttered. Deila laughed, her tail swishing back and forth. "No, but your emotions are surprisingly easy. I can see it in your eyes." Russetflight looked down, wondering what else Deila could sense about her. The wolf started to giggle, but stopped abruptly. Russetflight looked up. "What?" she asked. Deila sighed, and motioned to the floor of the she-cat's cage. "Operations," she replied nonchalantly. "Try to come back alive." Russetflight's eyes widened. ''Try to come back alive?! The russet she-cat felt a tingle in her paws. She looked down to see electric blue ripples spreading across her cage floor. She squeaked in terror, trying to climb up the interwebbing bars on the side of the cage. The ripples spreaded up the bars now, and she could hear them crackling with energy. She felt her paws tingle again, and closed her eyes, helpless. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. ''She let her body go limp, and submitted to the ripples. Her vision got blurry, and the last thing she saw was a twoleg in a mask and sterile white coat putting her on a stretcher and carrying her away. ''I'm going to die, she thought faintly. And then blackness swallowed her vision. Chapter 5 Russetflight tried to forget what little she remembered of the operation. She saw needles filled with strange fluid coming towards her, her body writhing with panic, unable to breach the steel bonds clamped around her arms and legs.' '''Panic had welled through her head, and red spots had danced across her vision as they stuck in the first needle. Mercifully, her vision went black after that, and when she woke up, she was back in her cage by Deila. "What happened?" she mumbled groggily, blinking at the harsh, artificial life. Deila smiled. "Ah! So you're back! Congratulations, you've made it past where a lot of animals haven't," Deila joked good-naturedly. ''How is she so calm?! "Umm... yeah, I'm back," Russetflight replied, wincing at where her body was sore from the operation. Piero wrapped his tail around his paws in the cage across from her. The she-cat tried to struggle to her paws, but fell back down, limp and sore. Deila watched sympathetically. "Look, lemme help," she murmured, gently nosing Russetflight into a sitting position. The russet she-cat nodded her head gratefully, staring into the distance at nothing in particular. Deila curled her thick, fluffy tail around her large paws. "Oh! I forgot something!" she said. Russetflight looked up. Deila crouched down, and leapt up high, hooking her claws into the metal mesh that served as the cage wall. Tensing her body, she leapt off of the wall and into the open air. Russetflight watched, wide-eyed and gaping, as Deila opened two black wings and hung motionless in the air. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ "You have wings?!" Deila shrugged nonchalantly. "Um, yeah. Why?" Russetflight just stared, hardly believing what she saw. Deila's huge, feathery gray wings were stretched out in her cage, the feathers rustling gently. Two long, stiff-looking feathers tipped with white stuck out from the end of each wing, and the russet she-cat just watched in awe as Deila turned them experimentally. TBC GrimmNever trust a little girl 17:59, October 13, 2012 (UTC) Category:Fan Fictions